


If it looks like a knife, hurts like a knife, and stabs like a knife, then it probably is a knife.

by livtontea



Series: Reginald Die Challenge [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Accidental Homicide, Character Death, Gen, If You Squint - Freeform, Knives, Murder, No Incest, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Trans Diego Hargreeves, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 16:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19154368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livtontea/pseuds/livtontea
Summary: The thing that most people don’t account for, however, is his shitty childhood. They don’t account for the hours spent waiting, waiting in a dark tank filled with water until he can come out, waiting until he can stop hurling knives at his siblings, waiting for freedom.Diego is good at waiting for what’s important. But he’s only human. Extraordinary human, but human.And all humans have limits.





	If it looks like a knife, hurts like a knife, and stabs like a knife, then it probably is a knife.

**Author's Note:**

> [this right here](https://seven-misfits.tumblr.com/post/185098458367/i-adore-that-diegos-entire-character-is-i-fight)

  
It’s a bright sunny day when Diego goes to visit Mom. It’s funny, but not actually funny. More like funny in a way that Klaus may find something funny, so slightly ironic and very much un-funny.

The un-funny funny thing is that on a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky is when Diego goes inside a dark evil house to visit another ray of hope in his life.

Mom has been a sunny constant in Diego’s life for as long as he can remember. She’s still a constant, except now in a worse way.

Now, instead of bringing hope to Diego that he will one day get out and it will be over, she makes him want to get her to leave. Leave the house of evil shadows and go with Diego, so she can be a mom somewhere else.

That won’t happen. Mom’s programming gets in her way, and it’s not like Diego can just ask Pogo or Mom herself to change it without Dad being informed.

He slips into the house through a second story window and feels a pang of anger at having to do that.

His siblings, the ones he still talks to, keep telling him that his whole “vigilante bone-buster schtick”, to quote Klaus, is extremely predictable. Predictable in the way that it’s exactly what Dad expects of him.

That’s the problem. Dad expects certain things of him, and because he was never taught anything different, Diego can’t do anything different.

_“Just stop getting into fights, Diego. It’s that simple.”_

_Well no, Allison. It’s not. It’s not that simple to stop something you’ve been doing your whole life._

So yeah. It makes him angry that even after being free from here for years he’s still tied to Reginald and the seeds he’s planted in all of their minds. Makes him want to smash his fists against a wall until his knuckles bleed because he knows Reginald is aware of exactly what every one of them is doing with what’s left of their lives and knows that Diego is doing exactly what he wanted him to do.

He hates that he’s got nothing else to do.

Not after being kicked from the Police Academy.

Diego gently closes the window once he’s inside, taking care to be as quiet as possible. His footsteps don’t echo, because he’s learned to be silent.

Diego isn’t the scared little kid anymore who picked a new name when he was fifteen with the help of his mom and siblings. He’s not the little boy with the wrong face painted onto his skin. Not the shortie with two messy pigtails tied up with red hair ties.

He’s Diego Hargreeves, and he’s a man who knows how to fend for himself.

But being quiet has never failed him in avoiding being noticed, so it’s not like he’s going to give up an asset because of pride.

He’s given up a lot of things because of pride, but his own silence is never going to be one of them.

Diego moves through the house, walking to where he knows Mom should be. He finds her there in the room with the paintings, charging her battery.

He patiently waits until the blue glow fades from Mom’s eyes because he’s got time. Not a lot of it, not enough for him to be satisfied, but enough to let her finish charging.

“Oh! Diego!” Mom smiles and it’s like everything is okay again. “I’ve missed you, sweetie. How have you been?”

Diego returns Mom’s smile with one of his own and sits down on a chair next to her.

“I’ve been great, Mom. Did you get a new dress?”

“This? Oh, yes. I have gotten it recently. How kind of you to notice, Diego.”

“It looks great, Mom.”

They talk until it’s been almost an hour, which is not nearly enough for Diego. He has so much to say to her, but he doesn’t have the time to say it.

He can almost hear Five’s disinterested voice saying something like _How sad, Two. You don’t have time. Well newsflash: time won’t wait for you. Nothing will._

It’s been so long since he’s seen him.

“Diego? Is something wrong?” Mom tilts her head. She’s always been the best at reading facial expressions, and Diego’s never been the best at hiding what he feels. That’s been anything but helpful to him so far.

“No, everything’s fine.” Diego smiles tiredly. “It’s just… Thinking about Five, you know?”

A sad expression flickers across Mom’s face, but it’s gone in fractions of a second. “Yes. The disappearance of Five still hurts me deeply. I understand, Diego.”

“Thanks, Mom.” A breathy laugh finds its way out of Diego’s throat. “I think I have to go now. I’ll see you soon.”

Diego presses a quick kiss to Mom’s cheek as he passes her on his way back to the window he came in from.

Because he’s lost in thought and Five is still at the front edges of his mind, he doesn’t check around corners like he usually does.

Mistake number one.

“What are you doing here, Number Two?” Reginald’s sharp voice cuts through Diego’s daydreams and shoves him back into reality.

He’s been successfully avoiding Dad for years, and because of that Diego allows himself a moment to marvel at how he looks exactly the same. A moment isn’t long though, so Diego nearly immediately straightens his back and does his best to look Dad in the eyes.

“Nothing. I was just leaving.” He tries to move past Reginald but the cane _the fucking cane_ hits the floor right in front of him just as he’s about to pass through.

“Number Two. Do not turn your back on me.”

Diego freezes and slowly, slowly turns back around. Reginald has anger dripping from him, droplets of it building up in the downward turn of his mouth and bunched up eyebrows.

“If you chose to return here, then you will fulfill your duty.”

“What duty,” spits out Diego. “I don’t live here anymore. I’m not a child anymore. I don’t have a duty to fulfill.”

“Do not display your attitude Number Two. You will always have duties to fulfill. Now go find Number One, he needs your assistance on a mission.”

Diego presses a hand against his side, where a knife is hidden. He always has knives with him, even when he takes off his knife harness. He took it off because he came to see Mom, but that doesn’t make him defenseless.

He made a promise to himself years ago that he’ll never be defenseless again.

Diego raises his gaze to Reginald’s steely glare and takes a deep breath. “No. You can’t tell me what to do anymore.”

A white-hot flash of anger speeds across Reginald’s face at Diego’s disobedience. Seconds later Diego is stumbling backward with a hand pressed to his now throbbing cheek. Reginald’s cane is still raised off the ground, its handle gripped tightly in his palm.

“Number Two,” spits Reginald. “I do not care what silly notions you have inside that empty skull of yours. You will go assist Number One in his mission. Now.”

Diego is not known to be patient. He’s not ever thought of as the one who takes his time or restrains himself, and for the most part that’s correct.

The thing that most people don’t account for, however, is his shitty childhood. They don’t account for the hours spent waiting, waiting in a dark tank filled with water until he can come out, waiting until he can stop hurling knives at his siblings, waiting for freedom.

Diego is good at waiting for what’s important. But he’s only human. Extraordinary human, but human.

And all humans have limits.

That’s why when at that moment, right after Reginald hits him across the face with his cane, the coil that’s wrapped around Diego’s stomach making him wait for so many things can’t handle the strain anymore.

It breaks loose and that’s why Diego reaches for that hidden knife and throws it at Reginald’s chest as hard as he can.

It hits him square in the heart, and there’s a split second where both of them look at the knife sticking out of Reginald’s body.

Then Reginald sinks to the ground with a guggle. A trickle of blood spills out of his mouth.

Diego watches the man who has put him and his family through so much pain bleed out on the floor with wide eyes. Reginald’s eyes turn glassy and dull until there’s no movement left in him.

Diego backs away from the body. It’s a body now. Not a person.

He turns and sprints out of the hallway to the front door.

The pounding of his feet reflects off the walls all the way until he’s outside and running down the street.

**Author's Note:**

> I wish you all a happy Reginald-free day.
> 
> Find me on tumblr @seven-misfits


End file.
